


Lifeshots

by Gimmeunicorn



Series: Lapidot anniversary week [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Just slightly, Lapidot Anniversary Week, Lapidot Anniversary Week 2019, Selfies, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 03:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18908200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gimmeunicorn/pseuds/Gimmeunicorn
Summary: Lapidot Anniversary Week 2019 - Day 2: barn mates/ Lapidot selfie dayLapis could not say that she enjoyed taking selfies. But she enjoyed when Peridot was happy, and there definitely was something about capturing those fragments of life together on a camera that made her extremely happy. So Lapis seconded some of her friend's requests, despite not fully understanding the purpose of this activity.Luckily, her excitable friend was apparently sensible enough not to ask too much of Lapis, limiting her requests only to special occasions. And Since both the green and blue gems were creatures of habit, they started a tradition of taking selfies in front of the barn whenever something interesting enough happened in their lives.





	Lifeshots

The first time Lapis had the experience of a "selfie" (and discovered what a selfie was, for that matter), was after a visit from Steven. This was some time after they had started redecorating the barn. Steven had come to drop some junk from Greg's garage that the green gem thought would be useful, and had taken the opportunity to show Peridot some functions of the tablet he had given her as a gift a few days prior.

From that day onward, there hadn't been a new significant occurrence in their lives that remained undocumented. Peridot never missed an opportunity to take pictures to post on her Cheeper account. Lapis had thought she would only be a silent observer of her friend's new passion without taking part, but oh was she wrong! One day she had found herself being dragged out of the barn by a visibly excited Peridot. When she had asked what the big fuss was about, she could have sworn she  
saw actual stars in Peridot's eyes.

"There's this thing called a 'selfie' that you can take with a tablet like mine" the small gem said, about to grab her tablet to demonstrate. "You just switch to the front camera liiiike thiiis..." a low clicking noise, and the pile of dirt on the bright display became a mirror image of Peridot, "and take a picture of yourself!" she had said, excited, before freezing that reflection of herself in time with a tap of her index finger.

"And people do this because..?." Lapis had asked in mild confusion. The smile on her barn mate had only widened, as she started explaining, "To show off. Or, you know, to be in the picture together with the things and people they like. Do you want to take one together? I thought we could celebrate the progress with the barn".  
"Are you going to put that on the internet?" Lapis frowned, her discomfort clear to Peridot, who suddenly became nervous. "Well, I was going to..." she replied "but I won't put it on the internet if you don't want me to! Please, it would be fun to take a selfie together! Please, please, pleeeeeaseee!" Lapis scoffed. She did not like the idea of pictures of herself being taken in general. However, her small friend seemed to really care about this, and was making what Lapis was sure was an enormous sacrifice by agreeing not to post it online.

"Ok, we can take a selfie, if it stays between us."

If gems could get sun burnt, then Peridot's bright smile in that moment would have certainly scorched Lapis. The smaller gem wasted no time in getting the both of them into position in a way so both themselves and a good portion of the barn were visible on the tablet's screen. "Ok, ready Lapis? Say cheese!". Lapis tensed even more, a half grimace half smile on her face, as Peridot hit the camera button.  


______________________________________________

Lapis could not say that she enjoyed taking selfies. But she enjoyed when Peridot was happy, and there definitely was something about capturing those fragments of life together on a camera that made her extremely happy. So Lapis seconded some of her friend's requests, despite not fully understanding the purpose of this activity.

Luckily, her excitable friend was apparently sensible enough not to ask too much of Lapis, limiting her requests only to special occasions. And Since both the green and blue gems were creatures of habit, they started a tradition of taking selfies in front of the barn whenever something interesting enough happened in their lives.

The both of them showing off some of their morps and the modernised barn exterior. Each of them was holding their best morp ("I know, aesthetic taste is mutable abd they're all deserving to be in the picture, Peridot, you said that twenty times, but for the love of the universe pick one!!! They're not all gonna fit in the shot!") and Peridot had tilted the tablet so that a bigger portion of the barn, including part of the silo used to close the hole that Peridot had made on the side wall, and the truck jutting out of the front like a balcony, could be seen.

Pumpkin's first day as a (even more alive) living being. Peridot and Lapis smiling and holding an excited looking living vegetable in their arms. Making Pumpkin stop wiggling for long enough so they could take the selfie had been a challenge. In the end they had managed to capture a good shot of the three of them in front of the barn's entrance at sunset, Steven's family and the crystal gems forgotten for a moment, as Peridot and Lapis celebrated a growing family of their own.

Peridot in the foreground, a knowing grin on her face. Behind her, by the side of the barn, Lapis and Steven were feeding a small bird, the same one they had raised together these past few weeks. They had thought Susan had left forever, but there she was, back to say hello to her improvised parents.  
Peridot had tried to look annoyed in the shot (that ungrateful ball of floof had never learned to bring her her work tools), but Steven and Lapis' joy had been hard not to get influenced by and, in the end, the picture ended up showing an equally amused Peridot.

Peridot and Lapis close to each other, smiling brightly, and an equally delighted Steven dressed as Pierre from Camp Pining Hearts emerging behind them and hugging them both. Lapis was also still in the costume she had been wearing earlier that night for their very own play, matching Steven's attire and Pearl's Paulette costume. Speaking of Pearl, the pale gem had managed to photobomb them in what must have been her most radical attempt at being transgressive since the two barn mates had met her. She had appeared in front of the barn's door behind the three at the last moment, still in character and shooting the observer a "I'm Paulette and I don't care about your personal space" smug look. Lapis would have normally found this annoying, yet she could not help look back at this scene with fondness, the goofiness of it all bringing back memories of the fun times during the preparations of their play, and of all the support she had received when she had felt her insecurity would get the best of her.

Peridot had not taken any more barn selfies after Lapis had fled Earth. The obvious reason being that Lapis had taken the barn to space with her. In its place now was only a wide crater, its bareness in stark contrast with the almost idillic patch of countryside the two of them had shaped over the months. Even if the barn had remained in its original place, there wouldn't have been any point in taking barn selfies without her barn mate.  


______________________________________________

They were departing for Homeworld, something Lapis did not think she would be willing to do after all she had been through. Yet their friends were in need, and protecting her new home and family had been the reason why she had come back, in the first place. This acknowledgement still did not do much to quell her internal turmoil and anguish. What were the chances they would make it out alive? It did not help that she would have to accept the idea of Peridot running the same risk, without giving into the instinct to flee and bring her along. Not that she had managed to convince the green gem the first time. At least this time she would be by her side, this realisation making her feel only slightly better.

She was dragged out of her thoughts by the smaller gem's voice calling her name. A moment later she was being dragged to a different part of the beach by the hand. "I thought we were getting to the ships" she said, confused. "We are, in a moment. First let's take a barn selfie!".That sentence alone made Lapis very uncomfortable. "But, Peri, there is no barn anymore" Lapis said as they stopped in front of the pile of wrecks formerly known as the barn, guilt colouring her expression. She hesitated, "why would you ever want a reminder of what happened to it?"

Peridot just grinned smugly, raising her tablet as if to better get her point across, "because..." she latched onto Lapis' neck with her other arm to bring her down to her same height while turning the screen towards them and opening the front camera, "...what you did that night was epic! Why would I not want a reminder of a diamond getting a building thrown at her face by you?". Peridot hit the button at the bottom of the screen as soon as she finished saying this.  
"Besides," she continued, "it would be nice to have something for comparison. Something to show how far we've come in rebuilding our life from scratch, once we build our home after we come back!".

The way the green gem said "after we come back" was so confident that Lapis started considering the possibility that they could actually make it back and finally live a happy life together. She looked at the picture on the screen: she looked to absent, in contrast with her beaming friend. Now she wished she had smiled, too. Surely they could spare a few more seconds to take another selfie, while  
Bismuth gave the handships a final check before they could leave for Homeworld.  


______________________________________________

Sat on the sand, the two gems squeeze closer to one another, the smaller of the two holding her tablet on her lap. Behind them, in all of its glory, one can see the new structure that has been built for them to go live in. Certain details remind of the old barn, notably the barrel roof and the truck (one of the few salvageable things retrieved from the rubble) jutting out of one side, on the second floor of the building, where Peridot had insisted they installed a new TV. The most striking differences were that, this time, it had been built on the beach on wooden pillars just like the temple house, and was attached to the house on a slightly lower level.

"After we take this one it'll be like we can tell the story of our life together on Earth!" Peridot unlocks the flat device, opens a folder named "barn mates" and taps on the first icon on the list. "Look!" she says, excited. "Do you remember this one? It's the first selfie we took together, and also the first one we took with the barn". Peridot jumps to the following selfies, one at a time, "you can see how far we've come since then! This is such a neat concept!". Lapis laughs fondly, "Peridot, they were telling a story even before this one". "Yes, but it was an open ending" Peridot pouts.

"You know...". For a moment, Lapis frowns slightly like she's thinking, "you could post them online". Peridot looks surprised at her companion's unexpected change of heart. "Are you serious? You said you didn't want the selfies to be made public".  
"I know. But, as you just said, we've come far. A lot of things have changed, including us, and I think this is a story worth sharing". Peridot smiles, moved by Lapis' words and happy about the idea of sharing something she was so proud of with the world.

The green gem finally lifts her tablet to get a nice view of the both of them and part of the background. "Now smiiiiile..." she says while trying to find the best position to take the shot. Lapis smiles and finds that the gesture, once quite forced, now comes natural to her.

"Maybe we should hire a photographer if we get married. There's no way we can fit all of the guests and the barn in the picture so up close" Peridot says as she considers the image on the screen, at the same time aiming for the button at the bottom of it. With a clicking sound, the picture is saved. She opens it from the preview icon.

Peridot's smile is almost brighter than the sun illuminating the background. Lapis is chocking on a figurative glass of water. They still decide not to retake the selfie.


End file.
